Alice Pfleghaar tossed her hat skyward Wednesday as she posed for a photo next to the Mary Tyler Moore statue in downtown Minneapolis.

“Did you get that?” she asked a friend.

Despite the balmy 30-degree day, Mary’s bronze hands were covered in gloves. They were not Philadelphia green or New England red and blue, but Minnesota purple.

It was appropriate. With relatively few Eagles and Patriots fans in town yet, curious suburbanites with names like Thorstenson, Hendrikson and Nelson dominated the Super Bowl Live fan festival on Wednesday afternoon. Many used the occasion as an excuse to make a relatively rare trip downtown.

Take Pfleghaar, who lives about 35 miles away in Jordan, Minn. Asked what else she had planned for the day, she shrugged.

“This was a biggie,” she said, gesturing back at the statue.

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The Bold North zip line over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

The Bold North zip line over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. (Andrew Wagaman/THE MORNING CALL)

Brenda Johnson of Coon Rapids, Minn., spent an hour-and-a-half clicking the refresh button on her computer this week so she could get tickets to the “Bold North” zip line, which spans more than 1,000 feet across the Mississippi River by the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and the iconic Grain Belt Beer sign.

Johnson and friend Kari Renstrom of Mora, Minn., strolled through the fan festival on Nicollet Mall to “kill some time” before their 2 p.m. appointment.

“It’s a little quiet,” Johnson said. “I know it’s just Wednesday, but I thought it would be a lot busier.”

The zip line experience was also the main reason Daniel Nellis and his family came in from suburban Maple Grove.

He didn’t soar across the Mississippi quite as fast as he thought, but it was well worth the visit.

“Minneapolis is a big city, but people kind of overlook it,” Nellis said. “They think of Chicago, they think of Nashville, they think of New York, but people don’t really think of Minneapolis all that much. So having the Super Bowl here and having all these awesome events here and having people brought in here is really cool.”

Downstream from the zip line, Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Stone Arch Bridge chatted up the few visitors who’d ventured out of the Mall. It was quieter still in the Guthrie Theater overlooking the river and St. Anthony Falls.

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The Guthrie Theater's ninth-floor "Amber Box" overlooks the St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River.

Campbell Korjala, a 17-year-old from Bloomington, had driven up to show his friend Olivia Atienzo, also from Bloomington, the literally golden views from Guthrie’s ninth-floor “Amber Box,” where the windows are a deep yellow.

The Super Bowl festivities on Nicollet, and especially those at the Mall of America in Bloomington, were an afterthought.

“When you live here, the Mall of America is not very cool,” Korjala said.

Turning to Atienzo, he added, “But maybe we should check out downtown.”

Over at the Minneapolis Convention Center, 2,500 children from across the Twin Cites experienced the field trip of a lifetime. They got two hours to run around the Super Bowl Experience, the NFL’s annual theme park. It features virtual reality simulations, a mini Hall of Fame and a Super Bowl Ring room. The lower level’s “Play 60 Zone” offers a punt, pass and kick challenge, a 40-yard dash and a field goal kicking challenge, among a bazillion other physical activities.

Andrew Wagaman/THE MORNING CALL

D'Anthony Swan, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School in Minneapolis, enjoyed the Super Bowl Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

D’Anthony Swan, an eighth-grader at Franklin Middle School, was riding high after nailing every last throw in one of the passing challenges.

“This is actually the best day of my life,” he said.

Teacher Michael Bratsch runs the Future Boys and Girls program at Franklin. In preparation for the Super Bowl, the children wrote and created a music video called “Coats, Hats and Gloves.” Inspired by the work of Minneapolis producer James “Jimmy Jam” Harris and Prince, the song is starting to go viral.

Bratsch said the point was to foster a sense of pride in the community.

“We need more expressions of innocence like this to build unity,” he said. “You’re talking about two minutes and 31 seconds of pure joy.”

Maybe the visitors are a little slow to arrive this week, but the Franklin youth are relishing their city’s big moment.

“It might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Bratsch said. “Who knows when the Super Bowl will be back?”